It was Johnson who won that final frantic battle to the finish line, holding steady as Keselowski slammed into the side of his car. Keselowski took it all the way to the edge, refusing, though, to cross a line and wreck the competition, and Johnson never blinked.

The five-time champion nudged ahead, got some separation and pulled away for the win. Johnson now holds a seven-point lead over Keselowski in the standings with two races remaining.

Those three restarts over the closing 19 laps on Sunday will go down as some of the most memorable racing of the Chase. It also saved a race that would have been memorable for being largely forgettable up to that point.

It took over three hours Sunday to get to the good stuff, and it's clearly not cutting it with fans. ESPN drew a 2.5 overnight rating, down 11 percent from a 2.8 in 2011.

Texas owner Bruton Smith alluded to the issues this weekend, when he said NASCAR needs to work at "making the racing more exciting."

"I think we can do better and we need to work at it diligently and make what we bring to the public better," said Smith, who suggested slowing the cars by 10-15 mph to increase rubbing between competitors, and smaller fuel tanks to force more frequent pit stops.

Because, Smith said, races with long green-flag runs that are decided by fuel mileage are "boring, boring, boring."

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Smith argued today's drivers lack the "mean streak" of NASCAR's blue-collar pioneers, and said interest in the sport would spike with more off-track contact.

That creates post-race fireworks, but doesn't do anything to fill the dearth of action Texas suffered through for the first 400-plus miles.

But NASCAR chairman Brian France recognized long ago there was a problem with the product, and that big finishes and debris cautions and controversial restarts and even post-race fisticuffs can't eclipse a bad show forever.

We'll see what the next two weeks bring for this championship race. And then the slate is wiped clean for NASCAR, which gets a fresh start next season at proving the show can be exciting before the grand finale.